just like meli has been the last few games then? terrible since he signed then proves him self a few wekks before the end of his contract

Meli*. Capital letter for surnames.

I think, and it just my opinion that Meli had a great season last year, and again this year, but really came into his own when moved to centre, its clearly a much better position for him, building on all his strengths and almost nullifying his only real weakness

Meli and Shenton should be one of the best defensive centre parterships in the game, with rotation on the wings between Lomax/Foster/Gardener.

The acid test will be seeing how you cope without Cunningham and to a lesser extent, Gidley...

Meli has played well for the last 2/3 years.

Meli is one of a very few players saints have who can bust a tackle and make a break, he's big and strong and pretty fast for a big guy.

I'd say he has been in our top 4 players over the last few years but has cost us grand finals and thats what some people relate to.

He's doing ok at centre but i fear for him in defence when we come up against smart teams with clever players like monaghen(spelling) and lee briers who will target his defensive postion.

When he can be bothered, Meli's defence is up there with the best of them. But no matter how hard he tries, he just cannot defend against a loose ball. He was caught out again last night just as he has been at every Grand Final and in fact any time at all where a loose ball has been spotted in his vicinity. He is safer defensively at centre than on the wing; Gardner is better defensively and even though Foster makes his youthful judgment errors he is a very savy lad and is showing good signs defensively. Not to mention signs of being a very courageous player.

It's not his one on one defence that worries me, it's his postion in his defence when teams move the ball wide, he likes to come out the line, a good halfback (briers) will throw a miss out ball and leave Meli caught out.

Flannery is the same in the centre, he gets caught out with his postion in the centre but will tackle anything head on.

That comes from not playing centre regular but in time he will learn when to come out of the line and when to stay.

Centre IMO is the most important postion to tackle, if you get caught out, you get burnt.

I'm still not 100% confident about his decision making in defence in the centre channel, but I think that's an acceptable trade-off given how much more dangerous our backline looks with him there. It also, as you imply, keeps him out of the way of those grubber kicks.

Just said same thing, it's his decision making in defence that worries me.

I have a worry a clever team will target his postion in defence.

He gives alot in attack though which we needed.

One things for sure next year, we will have a very strong front row.

If perry settles and tony p plays the way he has this year and add graham and LMS, thats 4 very good props and two good hookers in moore and roby, it looks good.

Perry
Roby
Graham
Sia
Flannery
Wilkin

Tony p
LMS
Moore
Clough

That IMO is a very strong pack and very strong bench, we also have magennis, dixon, ashurst, emmitt and maybe frodsham all on the outside looking in.

With the amount of 2nd rows we have next year means wilkin should play 13 and stay there. Maybe if he sticks at loose forward we might see the form of 2006 return, he needs to get back to the player he was and not a grafter, we have enough of them to allow wilkin to get back to a attacking loose.